//------------------------------//
// Flying Arrival 
// Story: Sweetie Belle and the School of Shadows 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

	“Is it me or was that stallion slightly crazy?” Sweetie asked her friends as they walked towards their second class.

“He must have been crazy,” Scootaloo commented, “I mean he was staring at you like you were the prize sitting amongst a sea of dull objects.”

Sweetie’s second class of the day, after the class with the strange Paladin stallion, was not what she expected it to be. She and her friends were now standing on what appeared to be the bridge of a ship, but not any ship. They were now above the school, on board an airship, with the rest of the class and the wind blowing through all their manes.

That’s right; it was a class on flying. And the instructor was none other than Rainbow Dash, much to the delight of Scootaloo.

And that wasn’t all of it. There was a second airship not too far from the one that they were standing one, but one mare seemed to stand out on that ship. She wore a huge eye patch over her left eye and a simple set of golden armor. She wore a grey coat with a blond mane and her cutie mark was bubbles. Or was it bubble wrap?

That was also right; the second captain was none other than Derpy Hooves. Though this time she seemed deadly serious as she stared at all of them from afar.

“I understand why Scootaloo is here,” Apple Bloom said, “and I understand why Sweetie Belle is here, but what the hay am I doing here? I don’t have wings at all.”

“I believe you’re here to cheer on Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo,” Mea said, planked by her Changeling guards, “Though I am sure that you’ll be allowed to go to your actual class once they are comfortable with flying.”

“And your guards,” Apple Bloom asked, watching the three Changelings, “what about them?”

“Here to protect me,” Mea replied, sighing softly, “That’s all really.”

Sweetie Belle would have said something, but Rainbow Dash slammed a hoof onto the wooden floor and gathered the attention of everypony on her ship.

“Right then,” she said, “I’m not the best teacher in the world, but I’ll have you flying better than before the day is done. Now I’m sure that your all worried about Derpy being my assistant, but with one clear eye she can see better and will not let anything harm you. And for added protection the Princesses have seen fit to allow Atar and Reginald to watch over the class.”

More like watch me, Sweetie thought as she noticed the two ponies on Derpy’s ship, and to stop Thrack if she were to suddenly take over.

She hated the idea of being watched because she had the power of a monster that wanted to destroy Princess Celestia. No, wait; it was more like she had the monster’s soul inside her and it was trying to escape so it could raise an army of the undead to do her dirty work. An army that she couldn’t tell anypony about because of Thrack’s magic. And Sweetie was sure that Darkstar had finally returned after seeing the panicked look on Nightmare’s face earlier that morning.

Yeah, she wasn’t paying attention to the class. Why would she anyway? Once she figured out how to remove Thrack and all her power from her body she could get into the classes she wanted. How she wanted to rip the monster out of her and eradicate her. That would please Princess Celestia.

Sweetie shook her head and got rid of those thoughts; Thrack was definitely getting to her. She saw fillies flying over to the other ship with Rainbow Dash close by so she could catch them if they fell. Apple Bloom was on the other ship, watching the progress while she waited for her friends to go. Mea and her guards approached the edge of the ship, the small princess jumping off and spreading her wings with ease. She did some flips before landing on the other ship with her guards not far behind.

As the line slowly got shorter Sweetie looked into the sky and saw the four layered barrier protecting the entire school. The first and third layers were colored pink, which was the standard for the Light Realms barriers. The second and fourth layers were colored grey, the new standard for the Shadow Realms barriers. It was designed to keep monsters out, but Sweetie suspected it was to keep Thrack in in case she escaped. And that really didn’t make much sense to Sweetie, but the Princesses were weird. Plus she noticed something small of the very outskirts of the barrier, but what she couldn’t tell.

“Come on Scootaloo,” she heard Apple Bloom shout, “You can do it.”

Sweetie looked towards her friend just as she leapt off the airship, trying to open her wings. Lucky for her that Rainbow Dash was paying attention and grabbed her quickly before returning her to her ship. The cyan mare gave Scootaloo some tips and pointers to help her out, which must have delighted the filly. When Scootaloo tried again she found success easily and it was clear that she was happy.

“Alright Sweetie Belle, your next,” Rainbow said.

Sweetie quickly looked around her and found that it was just her and Rainbow Dash on the airship. She had missed the majority of the class by watching the barriers and thinking about getting rid of Thrack. She gulped and approached the edge, her strange vampire wings opening just a bit. She hoped that she could do something other than fall out of the air and be saved by Rainbow Dash.

“Don’t worry Sweetie,” Rainbow said, “You saw me catch Scootaloo when she fell. I’d do the same thing for you and any other student of mine. I know you don’t approve of being in this class, but you have to follow the wishes of Princesses Luna and Nightmare. Now go show them how to fly.”

Sweetie gave her a weak smile and fully opened her wings, which actually wasn’t very hard for her to do. She took a deep breath before running forward and leaping off the ship. Just a second later her vision started to shift and she remembered to flap her wings, which immediately corrected her vision. It was her first time flying and there she was, not falling out of the sky and having to be caught by Rainbow Dash.

She broke her eyes away from the other ship for an instant and saw the object behind the barrier approaching at a dangerous speed. She quickly brought herself to the wooden floor of the second ship and stared at the object, trying to figure out what it was. Then she and everypony in the entire realm heard the worst noise that any of them could recall, the sound of multiple barriers shattering at once.

The object flew through the barriers like they were made of paper, easily making huge holes in all four of them. Whatever it was made Atar summon his special lance that radiated magical energy, which almost seemed to be dripping off it. Reginald just stood there like a statue, his mane covering his eyes and making it hard to tell what he was watching. And as the object approached the first ship the magic around it dissolved quickly until they could tell what the object actually was. And Sweetie was amazed by what she saw.

Floating, not flying, above the wooden floor was a pony shaped creature, but it had the horn of a unicorn and the wings of a pegasus. Its coat was colored a shade or two lighter than Twilight’s lavender coat, so a light purple color. Its mane and tail flowed exactly like the Princesses manes and tails did, though the colors were light blue with barely bright dark blue spots. Its cutie mark was the sun being covered by the moon halfway, which was strange. And the strange alicorn wore a familiar set of royal armor, only this set was crafted from a black material.

Before the alicorn even landed on the wooden floor Atar rushed across the air and landed beside it, the lance already in motion. The alicorn barely moved or used magic and a barrier sprung up around it, stopping the lance before it could hit it. Reginald appeared behind the alicorn and swung his front hoof at it, also getting stopped by the barrier. What was strange was that Reginald and Atar were being stopped so easily.

Then Princesses Luna, Nightmare, and Celestia landed near them, each of them looking over the scene. Out of the three it seemed that only Celestia had any idea of what was actually going on because of what she ended up saying.

“Atar, Reginald, stand down.”

That was the command that confused not only the other Princesses, but her loyal warriors as well. Reginald, loyal as he was, backed off quickly, though it took Atar a minute to do the same thing. Even Sweetie thought the command was confusing, mostly because she didn’t know if the new alicorn was a friend or foe.

“Prince Midnight,” Celestia said, “I’ve been expecting you for quite some time now.”